Portland officials frustrated over Bloomberg housing funding
Portland city councilors have plenty of ideas about how to use $750,000 from Bloomberg Philanthropies to chip away at the housing crisis, but despite being named as a recipient of the money, those ideas may never come to fruition.
Last week, the philanthropic organization announced Portland as one of 15 cities to test housing reforms that have worked in other parts of the country.
But Portland never applied to be part of the project and Mayor Mark Dion said that he and staff determined the city didn’t have any initiatives that fit the organization’s strict criteria, so he had to decline the offer.
It is unclear how or why Bloomberg included Portland in the announcement.The organization later updated its press release to “reflect that Portland, ME will not be a part of this initiative at this time.”
But city councilors, who hadn’t known Portland was even being considered for money, say Dion was too hasty to turn down the opportunity.
“We left that money on the table,” Councilor Wes Pelletier said in a phone interview. “Maybe there’s a chance for us to go for that money in the future, but we could use it now.”
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‘NOT A MATCH’
Using successful models from California, Texas and Georgia, cities in the Bloomberg program will receive between $450,000 and $750,000 as well as expert support to tackle permitting times, accessory dwelling unit approvals and a backlog of stalled affordable housing projects.
Portland already has a digitized permitting system, ADUs have been allowed on all single-family lots statewide for four years and the city has multiple task forces to clear the housing construction pipeline, Dion said.
He asked Bloomberg officials if they could use the money to help digitize the city’s rent control database instead, but the organization wasn’t interested, he said.
“It’s not a match right now,” Dion said last week.
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But he also said he was told that if the city develops an initiative in line with Bloomberg’s criteria, it is still considered eligible.
City officials were hopeful that meant if they could come up with a plan quickly, they may not miss out.
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But the organization said in a statement Wednesday that “while Portland will not be participating in the initiative at this time, we will be selecting additional cities in the future and would be delighted to consider Portland again.”
MAKING IT WORK
Kate Sykes believes there are obvious ways the city could use the money.
“I just have to ask if there’s a gas leak in here, because we’ve just put forward two social housing … pilot projects that we need staff to help us stand up,” Sykes said at the Housing and Economic Development Committee meeting on Tuesday. “It absolutely addresses the housing pipeline.”
Those proposals are meant to build more “missing middle” housing, including a 40-unit development on Cornell Street near Morrill’s Corner.
“It feels to me like if we can preserve the ability to participate in this and get almost a million dollars toward that, that is a smart idea,” she said.
Pelletier, who is not on the committee, saidthat while the city’s permitting system is online, it needs serious work.
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“Our digital infrastructure is bad, full stop, ” he said at the meeting. “We cannot pretend that it’s a good experience to log onto the city website and to fill out forms”
If there’s a way to improve the “interface” between residents and government, “we should be taking that money,” Pelletier said.
MAYBE NEXT TIME
Portland is still holding out hope for future rounds, and the committee directed Dion to get the materials from Bloomberg for staff to look over.
They will reconsider if there are any programs they could stand up that might be in line with the organization’s requirements.
But it will take time, said Dena Libner, assistant city manager.
“Building programs and conceptualizing them isn’t something that happens overnight,” she said, “but we would focus on that and bring back whatever we come up with as soon as we could.”
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It’s not clear whether Portland will be able to find a way to make the program fit with current needs, or even when another round may open up.
Dion and councilors agreed the will-they-won’t-they of Portland receiving the money was confusing and said Bloomberg was unclear about the timeline.
Part of the confusion, Dion said, was that the organization had a short decision-making window because it was used to dealing with executive mayors who can unilaterally make decisions, rather than legislative mayors like Dion, who have to be directed by the council.
Pelletier said he was frustrated that the council wasn’t involved earlier in the process.
“We need to figure out a better process for what happens when someone reaches out with this sort of offer,” he said.
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Tagged: housing
Hannah is the housing reporter at the Portland Press Herald, covering all aspects of Maine’s housing crisis - real estate and development, home ownership and rental issues and the lack of both affordability. More by Hannah LaClaire
